Ashen God

Chapter 797: Rank Promotion!


October 30th, Friday, five days after the Double Ninth Festival, Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World.

At 7 a.m., in the Main World, Greenland, capital region, Nuuk (Gothob), outskirts, Jensen Mountain.

After making his choice, Zhang Yanhang's view suddenly went black, and then just as suddenly, turned green. A lush Christmas tree, which absolutely should not have appeared in Greenland at this season, took up most of Zhang Yanhang's field of vision, and the tree was adorned with an assortment of ribbons and gold balls—some resplendently and garishly decorated.

Lying on the ground, Zhang Yanhang turned his head to the side and noticed that the meticulously decorated Christmas tree, even topped with a golden star, was being carried on the shoulder of a humanoid reindeer that was standing on two legs and must have been at least two to three meters tall.

At this moment, the humanoid reindeer, with eyes bloodshot red and sharp fangs emerging from its mouth, looking nothing like a creature of good nature, stared viciously at him as if it was about to launch an attack by swinging the Christmas tree in its hand.

"What the hell is this?" Without a second thought, Zhang Yanhang threw a punch that landed squarely on the chest of the humanoid reindeer.

Boom!

Accompanied by a tremendous sonic boom, the humanoid reindeer, carrying the Christmas tree, burst like an overinflated balloon, transforming into a shower of blood and flesh that fell from the sky onto the cold, ice-covered ground.

The scalding blood of the humanoid reindeer dripped onto the snow-covered ground, melting irregular pits into the surface and creating plumes of steam in the melting process.

Under normal circumstances, the faint steam should have continued to rise, but it soon turned into ice crystals as the ever-howling cold wind blew around and quickly merged back into the surrounding environment.

[Successfully killed a Third Tier One-star Monster 'Bloody Reindeer (Common)' ×1, Soul points +300.]

"Third Tier One-star Monster? Bloody Reindeer? I was just returning to the Main World, how the hell did I suddenly run into a monster? Moreover, right after coming out of a teleportation channel; this teleportation channel's location is somewhat unfriendly."

Zhang Yanhang used Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil to quickly scan the nearby environment and found many similar monsters. Aside from the Bloody Reindeer he had just killed, there were even flying gingerbread men and other types of monsters roaming nearby.

"First of all, I should definitely be in the Main World and not the Ashen World. So, the question is, where did all these monsters in the Main World come from?"

Even with a cursory scan, Zhang Yanhang could feel at least tens of thousands of monsters active in the vicinity, which was really absurd.

"Could it be that Greenland has already fallen? Wow, can't be, has the beacon of humanity fallen so quickly? Isn't this just the early stage? Isn't the permanent teleportation channel just recently opened?"

After some quick thought, Zhang Yanhang could somewhat understand why Greenland had fallen so quickly; it must be due to its sparse population.

In comparison to Australia, Greenland is the true definition of 'vast lands with a sparse population.' Australia still has a population of over twenty million, with an average of 0.4 square kilometers of land per person.

However, Greenland is different. With an area of over two million square kilometers, which is almost a third of Australia's size, it only has a population of less than sixty thousand—roughly one five-hundredth of Australia's—with an astonishing average of thirty-nine square kilometers of land per person, which is a hundred times that of Australia. It's equivalent to each person having a Raccoon City at their disposal.

And such vast territory coupled with such a sparse population, plus the fact that Greenland isn't a sovereign nation but an autonomous territory of Denmark, meant that it didn't have a capital but rather a secondary-level chief town, on par with a provincial capital. As a result, its administrative power was extremely weak.

"Even Greenland, this God-forsaken place, because of its natural conditions, would never be attacked, resulting in the complete absence of an army; at most, there were only some police forces for maintaining order and a small number of security troops... No wonder it's so pathetic," Zhang Yanhang muttered.

Zhang Yanhang glanced at the map on his mobile phone, realizing he was on the outskirts of Greenland's chief town 'Nuuk (Gothob)'.

"If even the chief town is in this shape, I guess Greenland has totally given up."

Considering the population of Greenland, Zhang Yanhang thought it was unrealistic to expect only fifty or sixty Awakeners in total to take up the responsibility of clearing all the permanent transmission channels on the island.

After all, with fifty or sixty Awakeners spread across more than two million square kilometers, each person would be responsible for tens of thousands of square kilometers, effectively proclaiming them kings over their own stretched domains.

Such a large jurisdiction area was challenging to monitor; not just for the likely subpar Awakeners from Greenland, but even Zhang Yanhang would find it strenuous to keep watch over such an expansive area at all times.

"Speaking of which, Greenland truly lives up to its reputation as Santa Claus's home, really pulling out a Christmas-themed permanent transmission channel unique to the region."

As for how Zhang Yanhang knew that Greenland was the home of Santa Claus, obviously, he learned it from internet searches—as the information was quite conspicuous. Perhaps Greenland really lacked historical significance, so they had to resort to adopting Santa Claus as an ancestral figure—a European tradition of venerating mythic characters as ancestors.

Although logically speaking, Zhang Yanhang shouldn't have been able to use his empire's 5G data while here, luckily, he'd gotten a year of unlimited satellite internet data for free a long time ago through multiple choice, which allowed him to search for information online using his mobile phone.

However, now abroad, he wasn't using Baidu but Google, as Baidu Maps didn't provide maps outside the empire, and only Google Maps had detailed information on Greenland.

"Since Greenland has already given up on itself, there's no need for me to help. Better to hurry back to Qin Island City and get promoted," he reasoned.

If there was a need in the future, Zhang Yanhang wouldn't mind coming back to scrounge for some soul points, but for now, it wasn't necessary.

Zhang Yanhang quickly confirmed his current distance from Qin Island City through Google Maps—it was 8,904 kilometers.

"After I augment myself with spiritual energy, I can move 3,391 kilometers per hour, so, it should take me just over two hours to return to the empire successfully, which doesn't seem very long," he calculated.

As he spoke, Zhang Yanhang flew up into the mid-air.

Gazing down at the vast white expanse of frozen land below, Zhang Yanhang couldn't help but remark, "A speck of dust from the epochs falling on Greenland turns into a colossal meteorite. Since they chose to lie down, they'll have to bear the consequences of their inaction."

Of course, it's also possible that Greenland wasn't actually lying down, but that the monsters had simply flattened the chief town during their protection efforts. Still, Zhang Yanhang didn't feel like meddling with such matters. After all, Greenland wasn't empire territory, so from any perspective, it wasn't his place to concern himself with such trivial issues.

Zhang Yanhang took one last look at Greenland and silently sighed, despairing over the possible sufferings that might afflict humanity when combating Ashen World through the Permanent Teleportation Channel, then he started heading straight towards Qin Island City, navigating by his phone.

...

On October 30th, Friday, the fifth day after the Double Ninth Festival and also Zhang Yanhang's first day away from Ashen World, at 10:05 AM, in the Main World, Qin Island City, Xingfuli District, in the bedroom of Apartment 505.

Since Earth is round, and there's nothing particularly distinctive in the air, it was inevitable for Zhang Yanhang to occasionally veer off course, so the journey which was originally expected to take just over two hours ultimately took three hours to successfully complete the flight back to Xingfuli District in Qin Island City.

Although he could have flown from Canada and the distance was similar to flying to Europe, Zhang Yanhang still chose to cross the Eurasian Continent. After all, beyond Canada lies the Pacific Ocean, which lacks distinctive features even more than the Eurasian Continent. He was afraid that veering off course would lead to even more delays.

As for why he could veer off course even with map guidance from his phone, that's because a phone's navigation is not an aviation radar. His flying speed had reached Mach 5, faster than the most advanced fighter jets, and the phone navigation simply couldn't keep up. Once he went off course, he was often far away before realising the mistake.

Therefore, compared to flying over the Pacific Ocean, Zhang Yanhang still felt crossing the Eurasian Continent was a better choice. At the very least there were countries on the land that could serve as landmarks, allowing him to correct his course in time and at least not end up absurdly off course, veering towards Australia or Indonesia.

After all, if he were to fly completely straight, the likelihood of his final destination being Indonesia or Papua New Guinea was high. Sometimes he had to fly at an angle to land precisely back in Qin Island City, hence why he always ended up off course midway.

It's worth mentioning that, in contrast to Denmark's Greenland, most of the countries Zhang Yanhang saw while crossing the Eurasian Continent appeared to be rather peaceful, without any monster infestations.

This indicates that, sometimes, having a population is quite beneficial. At the very least, the more populous a place is, the more Awakeners there are. The more Awakeners there are, the higher the probability of powerful Talents emerging. The more Awakeners with powerful Talents, the greater the chance of real powerhouses arising.

Needless to say, it's impossible for situations like Greenland, where one Awakener must manage tens of thousands of square kilometers, to occur in a normal country with a sufficient population.

"But even though Greenland itself is rather lacking, it does have monsters like the Bloody Reindeer, which are Third Tier One-star. Moreover, it seems that Bloody Reindeers may be on the weaker side, so if I'm in need of Soul points later on, it could be a good place to farm."

Of course, if there's a suitable Fourth or Fifth Tier Permanent Teleportation Channel near Qin Island City, Zhang Yanhang would still prefer to clear the one nearby. After all, Greenland is far too distant, and even teleporting there is quite arduous.

"I can currently teleport up to five hundred kilometers, while Greenland is about nine thousand kilometers away from Qin Island City. So, theoretically, I would need to cast Teleportation eighteen times in a row to reach Greenland."

Of course, that's just the current situation, as Zhang Yanhang is still at Third Tier and hasn't been promoted to Fourth Tier. If he were to get promoted to Fourth Tier, based on past experience, the effect of his Teleportation Technique should improve as he moves up in Rank. By then, he shouldn't need to cast Teleportation eighteen times in a row like he does now.

"Suddenly I remembered something, I was so confident earlier that I would be able to clear the entire Large Crimson Iron Ant Nest Talano before the Transmission Channel of the Small Crimson Iron Ant Nest Dala Gu closed that I didn't request for leave.

And today is Friday, yet I didn't attend classes..."

But having said that, Zhang Yanhang actually had an 'open' attitude towards skipping classes. After all, how could a college student not skip classes? Indeed, one should even be bold in skipping them. Hmm, the premise is that the class doesn't carry a significant portion of the grade, otherwise the likelihood of failing the final exam substantially increases.

Zhang Yanhang used Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil to scan his college. As expected, other students were attending classes normally, only he and his five 'ignorant' roommates were absent from this class.

"Forget it, stuff like skipping classes, it doesn't matter anymore. After all, for a college student role model like me who is set to retire upon graduation, whether I graduate or drop out doesn't make much of a difference..."

Since he had already skipped class today, Zhang Yanhang planned to call his counselor at noon to ask for leave, so as not to make the counselor think he had gone missing.

"Compared to things like Greenland, Permanent Teleportation Channels, or dropout certificates, what's most important to me now is advancing my Rank."

As he said this, Zhang Yanhang opened his Level panel to take a look.

[Name: Zhang Yanhang (Third Tier)]

[Race: Human]

[Profession: Heavenly Destiny Master]

[Level: LV.30 (Legendary Essence [0/1], Ash Source [0/7])]

[Soul points: 18,305,017]

"I currently have nine Legendary Essences and sixteen Ash Source points. To be promoted to Fourth Tier, I only need one Legendary Essence and seven Ash Source points. So, after I get promoted later, I should still have eight Legendary Essences and nine Ash Source points left.

Although I don't know if the subsequent requirements for promotion using Legendary Essence will increase significantly, having eight Legendary Essences makes me feel like I may not need to collect more for my promotion to Fifth Tier."

But considering the Skill Promotion after advancing to Fourth Tier, Zhang Yanhang felt he would definitely still be short on Ash Source points. At least, the nine Ash Source points he currently had would definitely not be enough...

"But those are things to consider later..."

Zhang Yanhang took a deep breath, then excitedly clicked on the promotion option.

[Would you like to use 1 Legendary Essence and 7 Ash Source points to raise your Profession Level to Fourth Tier LV.31?]

"Yes, raise my Profession Level to Fourth Tier LV.31."

Without any hesitation, Zhang Yanhang immediately selected confirm and began lying on his bed, quietly awaiting the Rank Promotion.

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